The Domestics 0a: The Way to a Girl's Heart
by scribblemyname
Summary: Charles always did know the way to a girl's heart. Spans pre-XMFC to post-X3.  Charles   Raven siblings, Kitty/Pyro, Charles/Emma, slight Charles/Moira
1. The Way to a Girl's Heart

THE DOMESTICS STORY ARC

STORY SUMMARY: Domestic life with the X-Men.

DISCLAIMERS: All characters and organizations (with the exception of small, mostly unnamed minor characters) are the product of Marvel.

CANONICAL NOTES: This story arc accepts movieverse canon for _First Class_, X1, X2, and X3. XO (_Origins_) is ignored. Powers for major characters follow movieverse, with the exception of Remy LeBeau/Gambit who is based on comicverse.

LANGUAGE AND ACCENTS: Cajun French is courtesy of Heavenmetal (many thanks). I will attempt to reproduce accents in this story arc.

* * *

><p><strong>The Way to a Girl's Heart<strong>

**- 0a -**

**Story Summary:** Charles always did know the way to a girl's heart.

**Chapter Summary: **Raven didn't believe him—brother's tend to be biased.

**Chapter Notes:** Set before _First Class_.

* * *

><p><strong>The Way to a Girl's Heart<strong>

**- 1 -**

Charles grimaced at the parting glare his potential future date had given. Raven dissolved into giggles. She was emphatically _not_ the giggling type, so much that Charles whipped his head around in her direction. Immediately, he grimaced again and reached to uncurl her fingers from around the champagne glass.

"I'm not drunk," she stopped giggling long enough to inform him primly, but she let him slide the glass out of her reach.

"I believe you," Charles replied. She was easier to manage when he agreed with her. "But then, what's so funny?"

Raven dissolved into giggles again.

Last time he ever snuck her into a club with him underage, he noted to himself. Especially one that served champagne.

She elbowed him. Hard. "You!"

He rubbed his ribs.

She ignored his action. "That is the lamest pickup line I've ever heard."

"What?" Charles asked. "She _does_ have a groovy mutation."

"Uh-huh." Raven shook her head at him. "Still lame."

Charles groaned and drank the rest of her champagne.

"Hey! That was mine!" Raven made a grab for the glass, but he pulled it out of her reach.

"You're my sister," he reminded her in his most tiresome drone. "I would be neglecting my brotherly duties if I _did_ allow you to get drunk and..." He didn't finish the sentence, just looked at her meaningfully.

The last time she'd gotten drunk (long story, don't ask), she'd streaked naked _and_ blue across the football field. While she'd claimed body paint (and they believed her), the fallout hadn't been pretty.

Raven crossed her arms and glared at Charles. "But what about me?" she demanded.

"What about you?"

"Do I have a groovy mutation?" she asked, voice suddenly quiet.

The question startled him. He couldn't read her tone. Her face was a mask. He had promised he would not read her mind.

"The grooviest," he said cautiously. "But you're my _sister_."

She stewed over this in silence before her shoulders sllumped a little and her empty fingers curled as if around a glass. Then she straightened, brightened, and turned to Charles with a sparkle in her eye. "You know," she said playfully, "even sisters occasionally like some flowers."

He studied Raven's teasing expression—how beautifully she acted the role. He had taken a psychology class last term just to help him understand her. She was so self-conscious about her appearance that he tried to avoid the topic altogether so she wouldn't be hurt by others and so she wouldn't feel that his "protesting too much" validated her own opinion. It seemed his silence had done worse.

He leaned over and kissed the top of her head. "I'll keep that in mind."

* * *

><p>Raven woke to sunshine spilling in the windows on her birthday and bounded out of bed to enjoy it. She stopped suddenly and stared at the top of her dresser.<p>

A dozen long stem roses filled a vase with their loveliness and her bedroom with their scent. Next to them lay a box of chocolates. She plucked out the small card and read '_to the prettiest girl in the world_.'

She grinned, unable to stop herself. Raven didn't believe him—brothers were generally biased—but she kissed the card, smelled the roses, and savored every chocolatey bite.


	2. Chocolate for a Lady

THE DOMESTICS STORY ARC

STORY SUMMARY: Domestic life with the X-Men.

DISCLAIMERS: All characters and organizations (with the exception of small, mostly unnamed minor characters) are the product of Marvel.

CANONICAL NOTES: This story arc accepts movieverse canon for _First Class_, X1, X2, and X3. XO (_Origins_) is ignored. Powers for major characters follow movieverse, with the exception of Remy LeBeau/Gambit who is based on comicverse.

LANGUAGE AND ACCENTS: Cajun French is courtesy of Heavenmetal (many thanks). I will attempt to reproduce accents in this story arc.

* * *

><p><strong>The Way to a Girl's Heart<strong>

**- 0a -**

**Story Summary:** Charles always did know the way to a girl's heart.

**Chapter Summary:** Let's face it: chocolate was a girl's best friend.

**Chapter Notes:** Set sometime shortly following X1. Written for **arliddian**. She wanted a follow-up to "Tech Support."

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><p><strong>Chocolate for a Lady<strong>

**- 2 -**

She started early putting in hints. Kitty wasn't optimistic enough to think St. John wouldn't get as creative with his valentines as he had with his request for her affections (or at least her Friday nights), so she made up a decent excuse (read: extorted out of Jubilee any magazine she could come up with covered the topic) and informed her...friend who was a boy that she, Katherine Pryde, was a very traditional sort of girl (MIT courses and hacker tendencies aside). She much preferred chocolate and roses to a pink lighter with her name engraved on it. (She didn't smoke.)

Chocolate and roses. Nice, warm, rich, velvety, delicious _chocolate_—or roses because they were romantic and she would appreciate a romantic gesture now and then. But she really wanted the chocolate. Chocolate was a girl's best friend (ignoring any myths to the contrary).

So she was not impressed at all by the _tiny_ box that showed up on her pillow and its accompanying serenade (though she was grateful he was not tone deaf, there were better times to make her aware of this fact than six o'clock in the morning). She didn't feel all that bad either about the dawning panic on his face at seeing her crestfallen expression when she opened said box to find a set of cold, hard, tiny diamond earrings. She understood they were expensive and he was new at this and she _ought_ to be grateful, but she'd _told_him what she wanted and so had every right to pout.

"Where's my chocolate?"

* * *

><p>Xavier found St. John Allerdyce sitting at the kitchen table with a dazed expression on his face. A very important phone call was waiting for the Professor in his office, along with three bills, a motion in Congress to go over, and a letter from Moira McTaggert with questions he didn't know how to answer, but Xavier had never been able to force himself to pass by unheeding of such a disconsolate cloud of thoughts as the one hovering over St. John's head.<p>

So he sighed and wheeled over to the table. He did not even get a chance to ask what was wrong before St. John opened his mouth and told him.

"I asked Mr. Summers," St. John said, still sounding a little dazed. He was holding up a box of perfectly exquisite diamond studs. "And she kicked me out."

Xavier glanced briefly over at the clock (it was still before seven in the morning) and winced. "Perhaps your timing?"

"She said she was a traditional sort of girl and Jean is too, so I asked him, and it didn't work at all."

The entire scene played out before Xavier's mental eyes and he realized this was more—and less—serious than he thought.

"Jean is not Kitty," Xavier told him gently. "Jean likes solid, lasting gifts from Scott as long-term reminders of his love."

St. John finally actually _looked _at the Professor, an encouraging sign.

Xavier went on. "Kitty has not been in a relationship long, and she wants the romance symbolized by things like flowers and chocolates, things that are comforting and exciting, but which don't last as long as diamonds."

St. John nodded. "Exit strategy."

Xavier frowned at that, but not all battles would be fought today (Moira was waiting after all). He smiled. "I do have a use for those diamond earrings if you would like the money back."

St. John looked at him oddly.

"A gift," Xavier added, chuckling at the visual of himself wearing them. "For a very old friend."

* * *

><p>Nobody else ever did find out the story behind a dozen boxes of chocolate that showed up on Kitty's bed that evening—or the small package that arrived on Mystique's birthday and drew a small, satisfied smile.<p> 


	3. Remember When it Was

**The Way to a Girl's Heart**

**- 0a -**

**Story Summary:** Charles always did know the way to a girl's heart.

**Chapter Summary**: Almost the way it always was.

**Chapter Notes:** Set after X3.

* * *

><p><strong>Remember When It Was<strong>

**- 3 -**

He looked the same. That was the first thing Raven noticed when she slipped into the quiet room Moira had pointed her to. It almost made Raven's lips quirk in a smile, the thought that they were both _here_, back in England, together with the only human woman both of them could tolerate.

She couldn't tolerate herself just yet.

"Raven?" His voice was hesitant, but familiar.

She leaned over him and brushed one hand over his comfortingly. "It's me, Charles."

Charles opened his eyes and looked at her. It wasn't the same body, but she couldn't tell the difference. And it was the same mind brushing gently against hers, asking permission to be truly sure she was his sister. With therapy, he would be able to walk again. With time, they might be able to heal.

He reached up and wiped a tear off her cheek with his hand. "Your hair is dark."

Raven let out a small laugh, not really amused, but unable to help herself that he would notice something so insignificant first. "Now you really _do_ look like the big brother." She smiled at him through her tears. "I'm not... I'm not a mutant anymore."

His eyebrows knitted together. He dropped his hand to cover hers and squeeze tight. "You're still the prettiest girl in all the world."

"You always did know the way to this girl's heart," she whispered back.

Sadly, but not unkindly, Charles shook his head. "Oh, Raven. I never did."

They sat there for a while longer without speaking. Their eyes said more than enough. Everything had changed and nothing had changed all at once.

"I found our old apartment," Raven finally told him. "I even took the liberty of renting it."

"With whose money?" he teased.

Raven teased back. "What's yours is mine." The sentiment was, of course, true.

"Off to save the world then?"

The siblings looked up to see Moira standing in the doorway. Her doctor's coat was still a surprise to Raven, though Charles had seen her in this light for years, and would continue until he finished therapy for the long unused body he now occupied.

"No," Raven answered her. "Just one small Oxford apartment."

Moira nodded. "Just try not to let him burn it down."

"That was an exception," Charles protested. "I bake an excellent casserole."

And for the first time in a long time, Raven shared a laugh with a human.

* * *

><p>It was almost like normal, Raven and Charles moving back into the comforting haunt of familiarity. They unplugged the television set. Both agreed to shut out the world unfolding after Alcatraz. They had been married to their plans and hopes for the future for too long. It was time to get to know themselves again—and each other.<p>

Charles _did_ melt the toaster, and Raven _did_ harp at him and his sheepish expression the entire time she was cleaning it up. Moira stopped by often, pleased at his physical progress and Raven's emotional progress at getting over being left behind on Alcatraz.

"Erik was a bit of a jerk," Charles admitted lightly.

Raven nearly choked on her water when he said that. "You were his _best friend_. You _sent_ me off with him." She poked him in the ribs. "What, were you lying?"

"No," Charles replied, almost primly. "But he did have a knack for leaving us whenever the tide of events changed."

Raven stared at him, then sat back with an almost child-like pout. "I absolutely refuse to commiserate over exe's with my _brother_."

Charles merely laughed. "I think we shall soon have company," he told her.

"Someone called?" Cautiously, she returned to sipping her water.

He tapped his temple with one finger. "In a manner of speaking."

Raven nodded. "Just tell them to leave the war outside." She set down her glass. "_Now_, my dear brother, we must teach you how to cook."


End file.
